The Comeback Kid: BP’s Tony Hayward to lead Glencore Xstrata

By Claudia Assis

Former BP PLC Chief Executive Tony Hayward has been named interim chairman of the newly merged Glencore Xstrata after shareholders ousted the commodities group’s veteran chairman.

Hayward will oversee the search for a new chief executive for the company, created a year ago by the merge of giant commodities trader Glencore and diversified mining company Xstrata. The ousted CEO, John Bond, had been CEO of Xstrata before the takeover.

Hayward would not be a candidate for the job, and will continue to run Genel Energy PLC, an Anglo-Turkish oil and gas exploration company focused on Iraqi Kurdistan fields.

Hayward resigned from BP in the wake of the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill. The accident killed 11 workers and triggered the worst U.S. offshore oil spill.

He is perhaps best remembered for complaining “I’d like my life back” while apologizing to Gulf residents weeks after the disaster.

Hayward became a senior independent director at Glencore after the commodities firm went public in 2011, and would revert to that role when a new CEO for Glencore Xstrata is found. Hayward was named interim chairman on Thursday following Glencore Xstrata’s annual shareholder meeting.

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